KEY POINTS:
Around 250 Blue Chip investors being forced to buy apartments they don't want are to get their day in court.
The case of 30 representative investors is to be heard at a six-week High Court trial starting in May.
A total of 250 burnt investors have contributed to a legal fighting fund to challenge the sale and purchase agreements they've been left holding for apartments in five central Auckland complexes.
The trial involves units in The Barclay short-stay apartments on Albert St, the Icon development near Symonds St and the Bianco building off upper Queen St.
Apartments in two other developments - The Stadium on Beach Rd and The Chatham in Pitt St - are also at issue.
The Blue Chip investors were told they would never have to buy the yet-to-be built apartments when they put their money into unusual investment products Blue Chip was selling called Joint Ventures and PIPs.
They involved the investor putting a deposit on an apartment, and Blue Chip paying them a 16 per cent return on those funds until the property was built. Blue Chip was then supposed to buy the completed apartment itself and return the original deposit to the investor.
But the property investment scheme collapsed a year ago, owing at least $80 million to around 2000 investors. Its activities are the subject of a Serious Fraud Office investigation.
The Barclay and Bianco are now completed, with the Icon close behind, and the developers want to settle the sales of the apartments.
But the investors have cancelled the sale and purchase agreements and want their deposits back. In most cases the deposits are being held in trust.
Bay of Plenty investor Linda Britton, who is co-ordinating a group of 69 investors in the Bianco development, said they had mixed feelings about the approaching court action, but were pleased the matter had got to trial.
"We've made huge ground and I keep reiterating to the whole team that I'm with that we're in this to win. I've got some investors that have recently lost their husbands, and that was their dying words, you know, 'you see this through, girl'."
In September the developer of The Barclay, Greenstone Group, said it wanted to avoid going to a full court hearing and had offered investors a range of solutions.
Around half of the apartments in the 111-unit building were the subject of the Blue Chip investment products.
Lawyer for the investors Paul Dale said although his camp was still talking to the developers the trial was due to proceed on May 11.
The investors say Greenstone Group and Blue Chip had an agency relationship, including a profit-share arrangement.
"When I look at the documents they were all as thick as thieves," Dale said.
He will argue in court that this kind of relationship with the developers was in breach of the law and therefore investors can walk away from the agreements.
